Bulldozer for heavy duty and ripping operations



E. L. HELTON ET AL June 12, 1962 BULLDOZER FOR HEAVY DUTY AND RIPPING OPERATIONS Filed Feb. 1, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS EUGENE L. HELTON y WILLIAM E. 77-10MA5 ATTDRNEV June 12, 1962 E. HELTON ETAL 3,038,267

BULLDOZER FOR HEAVY DUTY AND RIPPING OPERATIONS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 1, 1960 000 -l o o o o o o I\\ 4K IN V EN TORS L. HELTON ATTORNEY EUGENE W m E M M L H W M United States Patent 9 3,038,267 BULLDOZER FOR HEAVY DUTY AND RIPPING OPERATlONS Eugene L. Helton, Peoria, 111., and William R. Thomas,

Phoenix, Ariz., assignors to Caterpillar Tractor (30., Peoria, Ill., a corporation of California Filed Feb. 1, 1960, Ser. No. 5,673

6 Claims. (Cl. 37-145) This invention relates to bulldozer blades and particularly to improvements in such blades designed to fit them for efiicient operation in very heavy dozing and ripping service.

In the earthmoving art, the first cuts in a hillside preparatory to the building of a road or the movement of irregular rocky terrain place heavy burdens on bulldozer blades. In this type of work, the end bits which form continuations of a cutting edge of a blade, as well as the entire ends of the blade itself, are subject to unusually great wear. The presence of deeply embedded rocks also requires the use of a ripper tooth on the bulldozing tractor or another available tractor.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a bulldozer blade which overcomes the above mentioned disadvantages and particularly one which carries one or more ripper teeth retractable to a position protecting the end bit of the blade, and one which is provided with edge or router bits capable of being interchanged one with the other as wear occurs.

Further and more specific objects and advantages of the invention are made apparent in the following specification wherein it is described in detail by reference to the accompanying drawings. I

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a bulldozer blade embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view in end elevation of the blade shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation of one end of the same blade;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line IV-IV of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is a view like FIG. 2 illustrating certain modifications of the invention.

A conventional bulldozer blade is illustrated in the drawings as comprising a main portion with slightly forwardly inclined end panels 11, the blade having a hardened detachable cutting edge 12 and the end panels having separately detachable hardened end bits 13 forming a continuous cutting edge with that of the member 12. The end bits 13 are made separately detachable because they are subject to excessive wear particularly in heavy duty work and frequently must be replaced while the cutting edge 12 is still in usable condition. The entire blade assembly is supported on the push arms of a bulldozer frame partially shown at 14, as are also brace members 15, neither of which form a part of the present invention.

This invention consists in the addition to such a conventional bulldozer of special edge reinforcement in the form of edge bits or router bits shown at 16 on both edges of the blade and a pair of ripper teeth, the replace.- able hardened tips of which are shown at 17. The ripper tips 17 are carried by the ends of ripper shanks 18 slidably disposed in box-like housings formed by the addition of a plate 19 to an end plate 20 (see FIG. 4) of the bulldozer blade and suitably secured thereto as by welding. The ripper shanks may be secured in various positions of vertical adjustment with respect to the blade by pins 21, one of which is provided for each shank and adapted to be inserted through suitable aligned perforations in the member 19 and plate of several perforations 22 in the ripper shank. This enables the ripper to be extended as to the broken line position shown at the right hand side of FIG. 1 for ripping operations and enables the bulldozer to be adapted to ripping or dislodging deeply embedded rocks at a great saving in cost over providing a special ripping arrangement usually carried at the rear end of the tractor or on a separate tractor. The configuration of the ripper shanks and hardened tips 17 and the angle at which they are slidably disposed in the receptacles provided by the members 19 prevents the application of undue shearing stresses to the pins 21. This is because the application of pressure to a large rock or the like in a forward direction tends to cock the shank of the ripper in the receptacle so that the resulting forces are reacted mostly by the receptacle rather than being imparted directly to the pin 21.

A further advantage of the configuration of the ripper shank and tip is that, upon being retracted to the position which it assumes when not in use, the tip 17 is so disposed that it forms a continuation in effect of the forward face and lower edge of the end bit 13 and, therefore, receives a great portion of the Wear to which the end bit would otherwise be subjected in side hill and other heavy cuts.

In side hill cuts and also in the moving of heavy rock or the like where one lower corner of the blade is employed either with the ripper tooth extended or retracted the outer ends of the side wings 11 are subjected to unu sually heavy wear. Since the blade and side wings are curved substantially on the arc of a circle, the present invention provides end or router bits in separable sections formed on a complementary arc and adapted to be secured to the end plates of the bulldozer as by a plurality of cap screws 24. These cap screws, as best shown in FIG. 4 are protected by annular recesses 25 which surround their heads. These edge or router bits are of hardened steel and have a forward portion which forms a shoulder, as illustrated at 26 in FIG. 4, to overlap the forward edge of the blade or plate 20 which is similarly curved to react forward thrust forces and prevent shearing of the cap screws 24. The advantage of the identical arcuate configuration of the several small members which form the edge bits is that they are all interchangeable and, since the lowermost portion of the first bit is subjected to greater wear than any part of the other bits, the lowermost bit may be interchanged with the intermediate or upper ones repeatedly. Furthermore when the lower edge of all bits is worn, they may be interchanged with the bits on the opposite end of the bulldozer by inverting them so that they will again present unworn or slightly worn portions for service.

Through the construction described, the bulldozer blade of the present invention may be adjusted for use as a ripper and provides a ripper tooth which, when positioned for ordinary bulldozing operations, protects and prolongs the life of the end bit of the blade which is subjected to unusually high wear in heavy duty service. Furthermore, the edges of the blade above the edge of the end bits are protected by hardened steel bit members so constructed and arranged that they may be used interchangeably with each other and thus prolong the overall service life of a set of such members.

Two modifications of the invention are illustrated in FIG. 5 of the drawings, the first of which is the use of two pins 30 and 31 to support the ripper shank 18 in place of the single pin illustrated at 21 in FIG. 2. These pins extend through adjacent perforations 22 in the ripper shank and through an elongated opening 32 in the boxlike housing which supports the shank. The opening 32 is just long enough to embrace both pins and is disposed 20 and through any one assuming that to permit limited adjustment of the ripper when one pin .is removed. The two pins not only give additional strength to the ripper support but provide an improved means for adjusting the length to which it is extended. For example, FIG. 5 shows the ripper in its fully retracted position and the ripper tip is resting on the ground, removal of the pin 30 will enable the blade to be raised by the hydraulic jack or other control means employed for this purpose until the bottom of the elongated opening 32 engages the pin 31. The pin 30 may then be replaced in the hole 22 next above that through which the pin 31 extends and the ripper shank has been extended one unit of length as measured by the distance between centers of the holes 22. Further extension is accomplished by repeated removal of the bottom pin, raising the blade and replacing the pin in the top pin position. The reverse procedure is followed for retracting the ripper, that is removing the top pin, lowering the blade and replacing the top pin in the lower position as many times as is required to retract the ripper to any desired position. This greatly simplifies the adjustment of the ripper teeth and enables such adjustment to be made very simple by one man since it prevents greater than desired movement of the ripper tooth and enables an operator at the tractor controls to obtain perfect alignment of the perforations 22 in the ripper shank and the elongated opening 32 in the housing.

A further modification is illustrated in FIG. 5 wherein the two uppermost replaceable router bits 16 of FIG. 2 have been eliminated and two sections shown at 36 of ordinary cutting edge material are secured to the end of the blade as by welding. This retains the interchangeable feature of the lower bits 16 which may be removed, inverted and reversed by placing them on the opposite sides of the blade. This is a more economical structure than that illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4 since the lower bit is subjected to far greater wear than the upper bit, there are some conditions of service under which the interchangeability of the two lower bits will prove adequate.

We claim:

1. The combination with a bulldozer blade having a cutting edge extending throughout the length of its ground engaging portion of a ripper tooth having a hardened tip disposed adjacent an end of said cutting edge in a position to form a continuation thereof and protect it from excessive wear, said tooth including a shank, and means supporting the shank in a manner to enable it to be extended below the cutting edge of the blade for ripping operations.

2. The combination with a bulldozer blade of generally rectangular shape having a cutting edge extending throughout the length of its ground engaging portion and a support member adjacent each end, a ripper tooth having a hardened tip disposed adjacent each end of the cutting edge in positions to form continuations of the cutting edge and protect it from excessive wear, each ripper tooth including a shank, and guide means on said support member to slidably receive the shanks of the ripper teeth whereby they may be extended downwardly with respect to the blade, and means to secure them in a downwardly extended position.

3. The combination with a bulldozer blade of generally rectangular shape having a cutting edge extending throughout the length of its ground engaging portion and a support member adjacent each end, a ripper tooth having a hardened tip disposed adjacent each end of the cutting edge in positions to form continuations of the cutting edge and protect it from excessive wear, each ripper tooth including a shank, and guide means on said support member to slidably receive the shanks of the ripper teeth whereby they may be extended downwardly with respect to the blade, and router bits on the forward edges of said support members.

4. The combination defined in claim 3 in which the blade and forward edges of the support members are of curved configuration and the router bits are formed as a plurality of interchangeable curved sections.

5. The combination defined in claim 3 in'which the blade and forward edges of the support members are of curved configuration and at least the lowermost router bit at each end of the blade are formed as interchangeable curved members.

6. In earthmoving equipment comprising a tool having an earth engaging part and a shank, a support for slidably receiving said shank, and means to enable adjustment of said shank to and away from the earth with respect to said support, the improvement which comprises said shank having a plurality of equally spaced aligned perforations therein, said support having an elongated perforation registering simultaneously with but not extending beyond two adjacent perforations in the shank, and two pins insertable through the perforations in the shank and support.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,398,500 Carkey Nov. 29, 1921 1,843,260 Arnold Feb. 2, 1932 2,446,074 Blackmore July 27, 1948 2,485,407 Peterson Oct. 18, 1949 w, 2,718,075 MacLeod Sept. 20, 1955 2,817,168 Mullin Dec. 24, 1957 

